Losing My Freedom

In November I was involved in a minor traffic accident. Another car hit me from behind when I was stopped at an intersection. The result was a decent sized dent in my cars bumper. About a week after the accident I called my insurance company and they gave me the number of a repair shop. I brought my car by the repair shop in December and they told me it could probably get fixed in January. They ended up calling in March and scheduled to have it fixed on last Monday.

So I drove my car over at 8:00 Monday morning. Then I decided to walk the four miles back to my house since I needed the exercise. I was hoping that the car would be fixed by Tuesday since it would not take too long to fix the dent. But when I called Monday afternoon they told me the damage was worse than originally thought. So the car would not be ready until Thursday.

It may seem strange, but losing my car for three to four days made me very angry. I don't get upset about much because losing your temper doesn't help fix the problem, but not having my car until Thursday really frustrated me. Why would that make me upset? There were actually two reasons. The first was that I would have to ask other people to drive me to work on Tuesday and Thursday. Thankfully the missionaries who work at the college live less than five minutes from me, and were more than happy to drive me.

But there is another reason for my frustration and anger. For those three days I lost my freedom. I could not get into my car and drive to the coffee shop where I usually studied because it was too far away to walk. It wasn't really not having coffee that bothered me, but the fact that I couldn't get in the car and drive somewhere.

Not having my car has reminded me how much I love having freedom. The freedom to go where I want when I want to do it. Losing my car takes that precious freedom away from me for a few days. But all other types of freedom are precious to us as well. The freedom to make our own choices. The freedom to try doing things differently. Freedom to express our view on a subject even though people disagree with us. But is it right for us to act as if losing some of that freedom is the end of the world?

Monday night I went to a local grocery store for some well deserved ice cream. When I am driving it takes less than four minutes to get there. It took me about half an hour to walk to the store and back. Yes it was a little bit frustrating for the trip to take almost ten times longer walking than it would have been driving. But I lived through the ordeal. Walking to the store and back did not kill me, and it was actually kind of nice walking in the warm night air.

I called the repair shop this afternoon because it was Wednesday and I was hoping my car was finished. Instead they told me that my bumper had to be completely replaced, and the new part would arrive Thursday. That meant the car “should” be ready by Friday. So I will be making the thirty minute trip to the store and back for a few more days. But I am thankful to learn that it is possible to live without a car.